Kolkata: Bhadra International, a Delhi-based ground handing agency, has taken charge of cargo operations at Kolkata airport from Monday, marking the beginning of a transition to world-class service.
Ground handling of passenger operations at the airport, currently carried out by over two dozen agencies, will also be handed to the same agency from January 1, 2011. The move follows a new policy set up to regulate activities at the airport on security grounds. The Union home ministry and Bureau of Civil Aviation Security (BCAS) had assessed that safety was being compromised at airports due to presence of multiple agencies that engaged contractual staff without adequate background checks.
All private carriers moved Delhi high court against airport operators like Airports Authority of India (AAI), Delhi International Airport Ltd (DIAL), Mumbai International Airports Ltd (MIAL) and others, to stop them from implementing the policy that has been deferred twice. But with the court not ordering a stay on the new policy that comes into effect from January 1, 2011, Bhadra International has begun preparations to take charge of ground operations in Kolkata, Chennai and other southern airports allocated to it.
Similarly, two other ground handling agencies, NASS and Indo-Thai, have begun preparations at airports in west and north India. National carrier Air India and airport operators are also authorized to provide the service. AI right now provides the service to foreign carriers.
Bhadra International managing director Prem Bajaj said the company was ready to augment ground handling services at Kolkata to world-class level and had put in place investment of Rs 100
crore towards state-of-the-art equipment. “Nearly 90% of the equipment are imported and used globally,” Bajaj said.
They include five passenger coaches from German firm Cobus, 13 push back tractors from German firm Schopf, 10 ground power units from Austrian company Hitzynger, 13 battery-operated tractors from German firm Trepel and 24 water and lavatory clearance carts from German firm Schardera.
“Apart from the state-of-the-art equipment, we have hired personnel with proven backgrounds who have been trained by our consortium associate Novia, which has been involved in providing ground handling services in Sweden for the past 48 years. This will ensure that passengers transiting through Kolkata airport will be assured of streamlined services. There
will be no waiting at check-in counters and conveyor belts and stop pilferage of baggage,” Bajaj said.
On the cargo front, Bhadra has begun marketing the facility at Kolkata airport to exporters and importers and hope to increase movement from 140 tonne a day to 300 tonne within a year. “We are in discussion with an airline for a giant Boeing 747-800 series freighter to call at Kolkata airport,” the official said.

The Airports Authority of India (AAI) will make operational a new taxiway at the Kolkata Airport on Thursday.

The taxiway is expected to cut short runway occupancy time by aircrafts to almost one third. It will also reduce congestion along the two runways.

An official of the Kolkata Airport pointed out that once runway occupancy time is reduced, takeoffs will be faster.

The taxiway, called as kilo-taxiway (K Taxiway), will connect one end of the secondary runway to the primary one just ahead of the takeoff run.

The taxiway was constructed almost a year back. It was awaiting clearance from the Directorate-General of Civil Aviation (DGCA).

Mr R. Srinivasan, Airport Director, said: “Other than the savings in time, the new taxiway will also reduce fuel consumption of airlines. Airlines will save fuel charges of at least Rs 4 crore on a monthly basis.”

KOLKATA: Last winter, hundreds of passengers had a harrowing time in Kolkata airport as they had to wait for hours in the aircraft even after the fog cleared. Baffled over why flights stayed grounded despite improved visibility, it had sparked heated exchanges between passengers and flight crew. It happened on certain days during morning and evening rush hours when flights were held up due to an emergency.

Come Thursday and such delays will be reduced by nearly half as a new taxiway that was constructed over a year ago to reduce runway congestion and increase the tarmac's efficiency is commissioned. The fast-track entry and exit taxiway underwent a trial run on Tuesday after Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) gave its nod.

"The Kilo taxiway will reduce runway occupancy from 4 minutes to 2 minutes, thereby increasing efficiency and reducing congestion," airport director R Srinivasan said. It can lead to a monthly saving of nearly Rs 3 crore in operation and fuel costs.

The Kilo taxiway connects the end of the secondary runway to the primary runway just ahead of takeoff run at the Madhyamgram end. At present, there are four taxiways A, B, C and D. To take off from the Madhyamgram side of the 11,900 feet primary runway, an aircraft has to taxi through taxiway A. The takeoff distance from taxiway A to the Rajarhat end of the primary runway is 7,100 feet which is enough only for ATRs and other small aircraft and narrow body planes that weigh less.

A narrow-body aircraft with full load needs over 8,000 feet for a comfortable takeoff. The new Kilo taxiway is so located that it will allow aircraft a 10,000-ft free take-off run without having to backtrack.

"This will reduce the runway occupancy time by almost 50%. The time will fall further if a narrow-body aircraft is followed by an ATR. Then the separation time will be a minute and the ATR can take off from the intersection of taxiway A," said an ATC official.

However, fully loaded wide-body aircraft will still have to backtrack. But since Kolkata airport does not have a cluster of wide-body aircraft operating at the same time, it will not be a problem for some time to come.

Apart from low runway occupancy time for departing aircraft, the Kilo taxiway will also help incoming flights flights to exit the runway at the earliest after landing. Even when only the secondary runway is in use for landings, the new taxiway will enable flights that touch down to make a quick exit. Since departing aircraft cannot take off from the primary runway till the secondary runway is clear, lower occupancy time of secondary runway will help increase efficiency of the primary runway as well.

Thanks for posting this drawing although it is quite approximate. Fully functional Kilo taxiway will enhance traffic load to about 25-28 movements per hour. But after the integrated terminal is completed they need a capacity of 38-40 movements per hour! Current runway configuration could not handle that!

it will take a long time taking the length of the taxiway!...but if they could start now they mi8 be able to finish it off by the time integrated terminal officially breaks the first coconut for welcoming passengers!!!

Kolkata: Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose International Airport in Kolkata is staring at a possible collapse in flight services from January 1 unless officials of Airports Authority of India (AAI) and Bureau of Civil Aviation Security (BCAS) work overtime to complete an extremely challenging task.
While AAI has a relatively simpler job of forwarding around 2,500 applications for security passes for ground handling staff outsourced by various airlines, BCAS will have to scrutinise each application and issue the security pass for access to various sections of the airport. Other than bona fide passengers, security pass is mandatory for anyone entering the airport.
Applications for security passes are usually submitted by various carriers within the first fortnight of each month for the processing by AAI and BCAS that takes around two weeks. But AAI has refused applications for fresh monthly passes in December as it planned to terminate the services of multiple ground handling agencies according to the new policy. Instead, Bhadra International — the agency selected for ground handling ops at Kolkata, Chennai and other airports in south India — was to take over from January 1.
However, the Delhi high court order on Thursday that stayed the handover of operations to a single agency from January 1 has forced AAI and BCAS into a corner. Till Friday, airport officials had declined to accept the forms as it had not received the court order.
Unlike the usual practice of issuing passes that are valid for a month, the passes for January will be issued for only a fortnight. Sources said an extension will be issued only if there is a further court directive.
At present, seven major vendors — Air India, JP Construction, JSM Construction, Star International, Ideal Engineering, Global, Chowdhury Enterprise and MK Enterprise — do the ground handling operations for various airlines in Kolkata. Only Air India employees do not have a problem with the passes as it can continue with the operations as per the revised policy.
“At present, nearly all the blue-collar jobs of airlines, right from registered baggage X-ray to ramp for passengers to board the aircraft, is done by various agencies like ours. These include manning ticketing counters, bag match area, ramp etc,” said JP Construction director Dilip Kumar Sarkar.
The new policy to reduce the number of agencies operating at airports was formulated to address Union home ministry’s concerns on security. While Bhadra International managing director Prem Bajaj claimed the agency was ready to provide the services, carriers are not convinced.
“Bhadra International has no equipment or staff on the ground. If the agencies that are functioning at present are barred, we will not be in a position to carry on with operations,” Airlines Operators’ Committee chairman Vijay Matta said.
Airport officials acknowledged the problem at hand but said a temporary solution would be thrashed out. “The BCAS may issue an order, extending the security pass for December by a fortnight,” an official remarked.

KOLKATA: Already reeling under passenger overload, the situation at the domestic terminal of Kolkata airport has turned for the worse in the past couple of days due to weather-led flight delays.

"I haven't seen an airport so terribly crowded. There wasn't any chair vacant in either the check-in area or the security hold lounge. Scores of people had to stand for hours on end before the flights were finally announced," said Rajesh Sharma, a passenger who faced the ordeal on Monday morning.

Though Kolkata is equipped with category III-B instrument landing system that allows operation in poor weather with visibility down to 175 metre, the fog has been so severe that operations have been hit even though DGCA reduced visibility criteria to 150 metre. Passengers on low cost carrier SpiceJet were the worst hit as it does not have enough CAT III-B trained pilots.

While overcrowding of the terminal has been a challenge for the past several months, an additional load of 600-plus passengers in the morning and evening rush hours has it bursting at the seams. With 10 flights directly hit by weather that has been wreaking havoc in Delhi and another 12 flights affected due by consequential delays in the network, airport and airline staff at Kolkata airport are at their wit's end on how to tackle the situation.

"As it is, the situation at Kolkata airport is bad with twice the number of passengers than it is meant to service. Now, fog-related delays are leading to extreme congestion at the terminal between 6am and 9am and 8pm and 10pm," an airport official said.

While passengers booked on Delhi-bound flights are in a soup, having to spend nearly twice the journey time in conditions that are far from amenable, passengers to other destinations are also getting inconvenienced due to overcrowding.

"In the morning, toilets spill over and there is

trash everywhere. Since passengers have to wait for hours, they buy snacks and refreshments. The litter isn't cleaned regularly, leading to a mess," said passenger Joyashree Mukherjee.

The Directorate General

of Civil Aviation's directive to not board passengers into aircraft till there is positive forecast of a possible takeoff within half hour has added to the terminal crowding. "The new regulation is putting additional stress on the facility at the airport," an airport official pointed out.

KOLKATA: The twin terminals at Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose International Airport plunged into sheer chaos on Monday afternoon when a severe manpower crunch led to a blackout in the vital flight information display system for over a couple of hours.

From shortly after 3pm till nearly 6pm, the flight information display boards and LCD monitors installed to inform the status of arriving and departing flights remained blank as there was no one in the studio department to feed the relevant information into the master computer of the display system. Though the problem had been brewing since late Saturday evening, lack of contingency measures on time precipitated the crisis on Monday afternoon.

While the all-women department has 13 employees against a sanctioned strength of 15, there were enough hints of trouble in the weekend when the staff strength was reduced to a bare six. While three were on annual leave, four others went on sick leave. Of them, one had an accident and two were suffering from hepatitis.

Of the remaining six, two reported ill on Monday morning, triggering the crisis. The other four having worked on the Sunday night and Monday day shift left for home, leaving the studio unattended and plunging the airport into chaos.

"I was aghast to see the flight display boards blank. It was as though Kolkata airport had suddenly shut down operations. Inside, there was absolute chaos. Passengers did not know if the flights were operating on time, when one had to go for check-in, when one was required to report for security check and even when it was time to board," said passenger Pramod Gupta, baffled and disgusted at the situation.

Airline staff had a trying time, having to scream at the top of their voice to inform passengers that they had to move in for security check or board the flight. "It was pathetic really. A breakdown in information display system meant that passengers did not know anything. Even the most basic information like which gate to head for departure could not be communicated," said a hassled airline staff.

The introduction of the computerised and electronic system led to complete automation of the public address and information system with no alternative systems for airlines to operate in exigencies such as the one that occurred on Monday.

However, what really led to the crisis was inept handing of the situation due to the officials' failure to anticipate the problem. It was only after the system was blanked out and chaos descended at the airport did they show the urgency to address the problem.

Then, too, officers dilly-dallied, fearing resistance from the union that is vehemently opposed to deputing contractual staff in departments manned by Airports Authority of India employees. On Monday, though, the union relented early in the afternoon after understanding the gravity of the situation. But AAI officers sat tight till a full-blown crisis had ensued. It was only then that three contractual staff from the IT department were assigned to the studio to temporarily tide over the crisis.

The information display boards were revived around 6pm but the public address system remained inoperative all evening and night.

its the darkness before the first ray of hope.
lets keep the fingers crossed for the new terminal

__________________One day, the earth will consume you. What you consume decides when you will be consumed - Sadhguru Jaggi Vasudev

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Serious no idea how they are going to manage the chaos... the airport management just doesnt have the clue....If Delhi and Mumbai's old terminals(Mumbai with work for the terminal going on simultaneously) could be managed efficiently by two private companies.. despite they being the busiest terminals in the country.... i dont understand why Kolkata cant be managed...